and all the stars can quit
by miss carefree
Summary: She'd accepted the circumstances for being the way it was, for breaking her team apart. And then putting them back together. Or the one where Tsunade tells Sakura an abridged version of Kakashi's sob story, breach of shinobi privacy be damned. One-shot.


Title's taken from Au Revoir - OneRepublic.

Not mine.

* * *

and all the stars can quit

It was a rather late morning when Haruno Sakura walked in to the Hokage's office at the same moment when her sensei was leaving. The older man offers an eye smile and quick wave before his body disappeared completely.

For a few seconds, she just stared at where he just stood a moment ago.

It had been more than two weeks since she saw him in the village. Yes, she was upset that she's got left behind, still, she worried anyway. About her sensei, about Naruto, and about Sasuke. Her boys. She'd wanted to ask the Godaime of the jounin's whereabouts but never built up enough courage to start the conversation.

A resigned sigh brought her attention back to her shishou and she offered the older woman a slight bow in greeting.

Tsunade muttered something under her breath about brats and idiots and non-stop missions.

"Your sensei is fine," the woman offered, knowing her young apprentice would want to know, had wanted to know.

A pair of green eyes widen at that statement. "Hai," she mumbled, lowering her head.

"He's just…" It's how he handles the situation, not the best way but, "...Konoha needs him out there at the moment." Tsunade said. Your sensei was basically a nutcase, escaping to the rush of dangerous missions to cope with personal failure, she did not say.

The Godaime could not decide if it's the Yondaime's fault for putting an emotionally-scarred fourteen year old into ANBU or the Sandaime for allowing the kid to hide in there for so long. But, then again, she also send him on a number of missions designated for the masked shinobi.

Anybody else, they would have broke and never got back up under all the weights he carried everyday. Hell, she did abandoned the village and shinobi life after one too many failures and disappointments.

Didn't mean she had to like the fact that a team was broken before they could even grow into their potential, leaving a genin without a team and sensei.

But, the young genin did not know anything about her sensei's past to understand him. The legendary Hatake Kakashi, jounin of Konoha, was all but a mystery to her.

"Come with me, Sakura," Tsunade stood up, making way for the door, trusting the pinkette to follow her.

Shizune was about to stop her, but the firm shake of the Godaime's head had her nodded silently in understanding.

Slightly confused, Sakura walked after her shishou out of the room dutifully.

* * *

The walk was a long one, through streets bustling with people going about their business. Sakura followed the Hokage silently a half-step behind, unsure of where they were going until they made turns toward one of the more secluded training grounds.

"Kakashi is fine," Tsunade began, once they were turned into a deserted road, "the kid has gone through much worse before." And she hoped this wasn't his breaking point.

Sakura could not gather enough wit to form a respond. The blonde wasn't waiting for one.

"Did anyone ever tell you, that all of his teammates and sensei were KIA?"

No, nobody certainly ever did, Sakura wanted to say. But her voice died in her throat, her heart dropped to the cold bottom of her stomach. She remembered Sasuke, senbon covering his body, so close to death. And stood frozen.

Sakura felt like throwing up.

"What?" She choked on the word, could not be bothered to feel embarrassed by such display in front of the Hokage.

Tsunade stopped in her steps, turning to face her now apprentice, hunching over, a hand fisted against her chest.

"Different missions, but yes, they all died on missions." It wasn't a mission on Minato's part, but, it's need to know and the girl did not need to know that much. She held herself from mentioning Sakumo's death, settling with, "Both his parents also passed when he was a child."

His _teammates_ and _sensei_ were _killed in action._

Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their _teammates_ are _worse_ than trash.

The girl was breathing hard by now, her eyes wet with tears. Her brain working to process all of these new information.

"And it drives him to take missions after missions. You know a shinobi does not develop strength from taking the regular ones." Past mission reports, the most essential and confidential ones, were among the endless documents she'd reviewed after being sworn as Hokage. Hatake Kakashi and his squad appeared on too many of those reports. "Though, it doesn't go into being a good sensei." Tsunade paused, just now realizing the tight clench in her own chest.

Unconsciously her mind recalled the one time she, briefly, had held him as a baby when Jiraiya made her come with him to Kakashi's mother's funeral. She'd like to believe she didn't care much, but seeing the few weeks old baby crying in distress, maybe looking for his dead mother, she hated to admit that something inside her crack.

Clearing her throat, Tsunade added, "I need you to know that bit about your sensei; but he's going to be fine." The same could not be said about their team. "And at a time like this, I need you to understand that him being a jounin is more useful to Konoha than keeping him as your sensei."

Perhaps, if Jiraiya didn't take Naruto with him…

The ideal would be having Jiraiya in the village so the toad sage could train him along with Kakashi, and Team 7 could be kept with the three of them. Of course, there's nothing ideal about the shinobi world where children went to school to be a professional glorified killer. And as Hokage, in such time after the invasion, she could not justify keeping a jounin of Kakashi's level to genin-friendly missions for the sake of one genin.

Tsunade watched Sakura for a moment, appraising her, "Now, you have come to me, Sakura, you have shown potential and I wouldn't accept less than your outmost dedication and effort as my apprentice. You hear me, girl?"

The young genin was visibly straightening herself, wiping her tear stained eyes and nodded. "Hai, Tsunade-sama."

"Good, because there will be no more talks in the future." She turned to walked back to the tower, adding, "Go home, meet me here tomorrow at six."

All this talk from Tsunade, and all she could think about was that she'd liked to hug her sensei.

* * *

It wasn't until much, much later that Sakura saw the whole picture clearly. Of Naruto being a jinchuriki. Of Sasuke's ambition. Of her being the one left behind. Of Kakashi-sensei's sensei being Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime and Naruto's father. Of a teammate dead by his chidori. Of another not-dead teammate practically orchestrating a war.

And she'd understood it wasn't anybody's fault. She'd accepted the circumstances for being the way it was, for breaking her team apart. And then putting them back together.

-end-

* * *

This one is more of my personal opinion as it kind of bothers me how everything just went south after the whole Chuunin Exam and Orochimaru mess, painting Kakashi as a bad sensei. While I reckon it's just the damn plot, and hell, everyone is messed up in one way or another, it's nice to imagine Tsunade giving Sakura this talk to help her understand, a little, and focuses her energy to her apprenticeship and not spend time wondering where the hell her old sensei was.

(I was going to share this on the 15th, but then my data plan had other ideas.)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, and have a great day. Or evening.


End file.
